English 252 Section 2

I chose the song, “Sad Song” by We the Kings. I chose this song because when I listen to the words, I can connect to it. For my found poem, I first read through the song lyrics. After going through the lyrics, I circled the lyrics that stood out to me. The lyrics tend to be sad and a little down, but there is a story to goes along with what’s being said. When hearing Travis, the lead singer, singing you can hear the emotions of sadness and grief pouring out. The song is about a husband losing a loved one and I can relate to this because I have lost a loved one. I also relate this to losing someone in a relationship, where I can also relate to it as well. I did different colored lines and circles just to bring some fun colors, but I also tried to color cordnate certain types of words.

For my found poem, I chose to do it on the article of Laura Ingraham laughing at Nipsey Hussle and making rude comments in response to him and YG’s (another current rapper) song and video about Donald Trump. When I browsed through my Instagram this weekend looking for something to bring into Monday’s class, I came across the news coverage video of her and her partner laughing and making fun of the late rapper and his colleague. I was immediately outraged and disgusted by the laughing and comments that were presented in my found poem. Her lack of knowledge on the culture, her history of attacking people who oppose Donald Trump (also stated in the poem) or who are of color and lack of respect for the dead and people’s opinions, really caused me to wonder how she became a newscaster and how she continues to work for Fox News, despite her reputation.

It is understandable to have your own opinion, but I feel it should’ve been done in a way that was deferential, especially since she is talking about a man who was recently killed and who was loved and honored by family, friends, and fans due to how much he gave back to his community and made endless efforts to make the world a better place. I feel she was extremely condescending and it is disgusting. It is evident that she is very racist and a horrible image for Fox News. Like stated by all of the other rappers in the article, she needs to be fired.

For the found poem assignment I chose to use the lyric in the song, U.O.E.N.O. it by Rick Ross featuring Future. The two lines I scrambled in my found poem are, “Put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it”, and ” I took her home and enjoyed, she ain’t even know it”. The reason I chose this lyric is not only due to the anger that develops when hearing the song but, presenting how the ideal of treating women is presented in our generation. People tend to think that women are being treated better than the past. In actuality a system has been created to manipulate and mistreat women of all races in this world. Whether it is the workplace, sports, or simply in relationships women are seen as the weaker link to men who lack respect and character. The reason I used orange and blue in the found poem is because of the meaning in which they hold. The meaning of the color orange according to the Bourn Creative, “is associated with balance, sexuality, and freedom “. The color orange I also associated with the female gender symbol, to express how a situation such as the rapper Rick Ross raps about drugging women and raping them, creates a sort of symbol of freedom in the sex. Blue according to Bourn Creative is associated with, “depth, trust, loyalty,and sincerity”. The reason I corresponded this color with the male gender symbol is because these are the characteristics in which all men need to develop in relationship with all women whether we know them or not.

For my found poem, I used the last few lines of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”. If you’ve never read the novel/ don’t remember it well, the last few paragraphs relate to a character named Boo Radley. Boo Radley was a recluse in the town of Maycomb, so much so that the children began imagining who he was, what he does in his house, and make assumptions about the type of person he is. Towards the end of the novel, Scout and Jem (two main characters, siblings), are attacked by a man named Bob Ewell, who, lost his job due to Atticus’ (their father) trial. Ewell had intended to kill the children as revenge towards Atticus, and Boo Radley is the person who saved them.

The novel itself is very shocking and sad, with themes such as racism and injustice being highly prevalent. In the last few pages of the novel, I was becoming angry with the way Boo Radley had been treated all along, despite being an unmasked hero. With the poem, I crossed out the parts where Scout described how Boo Radley was chased by the cops after saving the children. I kept parts where Scout herself recognizes Boo Radley as a person and good human being, and where Atticus finally agrees with her. I included parts like “He … Sat me down” and “His hands were … around me” to establish a sense of love prevailing against the hatred that was so grown into the town of Maycomb. I also included “He would be there all night / in the morning”, to bring about a sense of security within the readers; to feel as though there was some warmth in an atmosphere that was so bitterly cold. Additionally, I included “They chased him … ’cause they didn’t know what he looked like” because it epitomizes the fear that the majority of the town felt toward Boo Radley.

For my found poem, I wanted to do something that is aggravating and make it sort of funny in a way. This poem is made entirely out of words from Donald Trump’s tweets. His tweets to start are already outrageous. So this was a fun experiment to see if I could make the meaning of the poem against Trump. This is a large contrast from the original tweets that Trump talks so highly of himself. I wanted to show the other side and opinions that many people agree with. I wanted the layout to incorporate poetry and stay true to the twitter format. The spacing out of words and different sizes show that it is a found poem. I included Trump’s twitter handle and picture at the top to give the sense of it being another one of his tweets. But, the content is something opposite of what he would say about himself; but said in his own words.

For my found poem I focused on the song “Breathe me” by Sia. This song is about feeling neglected, constantly worried, and anxious. It also seems to be a story of self harm and hardships. While actually listening it seems very real to be Sia. The first time I heard this song was when I watched the movie Cyberbully, where a teenage girl becomes a victim of bullying on and off line and starts having suicidal thoughts.This isn’t a song I chose because I could relate on a personal level but more because one day on my way home from class this song came on the radio and hearing it and really thinking about it made me also think of the book ZONG that we have been reading in class.

If you weren’t looking at my found poem and just listening to this song there is a few things to think about. One is throughout the whole song the piano in the back stays basically constant throughout the whole song. One effect that this has on the lyrics is it makes the listener focus in more on the words in the song rather than what is going on in the background. Another is every once in awhile a few other instruments will come into play and this seems to be for dramatic effect. While listening to Sia sing you can hear a lot of emotions in her voice. Emotions like sadness, hurt, anger, loneliness. This is one of the things that made me think of the book Zong. I can relate this to the book because of while just reading the poems I didn’t understand the emotions, until hearing the reading. When I heard the reading that was when it I could really understand and relate to the emotions and feelings of the author. Another factor that I could relate to the book is the speed of the song and the words in the song. While listening it is very slow it seems like while shes singing the words are spaced out and purposely drawn out. This is very similar to in Zong and the way the words are spaced out on the page and the way words are broken up into bits and pieces. When actually creating my found poem I tried to make it as relatable to the book as possible. I took the lyrics of the song and read them over and over again. After that I listened to the song a few times while reading the lyrics. The next thing I did was I wrote down the lyrics. I spaced out each word, just like in Zong. this seemed to be effective because this song seems like somebody is taking long breaths, almost like they are drowning much like in Zong. Also the white space is where they feel most alone and most broken and the words are where they are trying to ask for help.  I wrote some of the words smaller than others and I made other words larger and darker. The words that I made larger and darker are words that I found most powerful. These words are where I thought the author of the song is calling out for help, and showing their weakness. Also these words can all be put together and make up some of the lyrics that are repeated in the song; “Be my friend, hold me. Wrap me up, unfold me, I am small, I’m needy. Warm me up”.  Another aspect of the song that I used when making my found poem was the title of the song which is also used in the lyrics repeated in the chorus. These lyrics are “Breathe me”, I placed each one of these words in the corner of the page completely spaced out. The effect I was going for here was again with the call for help, struggle to breathe. Where the words are that is where the author is calling for help and the white space is the place where they are “drowning” and the place where they are most alone.